Saturday, September 22, 2012

who might happen to find this, I have something to offer:Without knowing it, he had broken a time-honored maxim of that world:
Never speak ill of your own people when in the company of strangers.
There was too little recognition of the malignant
trilogy—anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and anti-modernism—that had
poisoned the life of Egypt and much of the region. . . .
Could be that he didn't consider it a problem because he doesn't consider us 'his people'?

Half of the pattern is a bunch theocratic douchebags that
oppress people. They have perfected the successful gambit of blaming
America (or Israel) for their manifest failures. Their people, exposed
to generations of propaganda, are buying it hook, line, and
sinker. Here’s a hint, if your cat barfs on the rug in Aswan (Egypt)
and you think America (or Israel) is the cause, you’re an embarrassment
to yourself and your society. The other half are American elites (both
parties) who make a living pretending that theocratic jackoffs are
“moderates” and evil does not exist. Here’s a hint; evil does exist and
if you don’t accept that you’re useless.

and boy, are we screwed:Look, folks, I am in this field. I have been for more than 30 years.
Losing 36,000 MWs of the most cost-efficient generation capacity in the
US is a disaster. You have no idea how bad the increases are going to
be. They will be disastrous to the individual energy consumers and
apocalyptic to large users – those who create jobs.

I shudder to think of what this is going to do to grid reliability as
well. A lot of those coal plants help support the grid during
disruptions. They regularly provide both energy and MVARs (Mega
Volt-Ampere Reactive) that keep the grid from collapsing when large
loads are added or lost. (That’s about as simple as I can make it and
still be understood.) Losing these stabilizers will make it very hard to
hold the grid. I pity the load dispatchers.

Trust me, people, this is a very big, very bad thing that is happening as a direct result of Barack Obama’s war on coal.

Friday, September 21, 2012

The White House’s refusal to release communications related to the
Fast and Furious gun-walking program and the refusal of a White House
official to be interviewed about the matter “made it impossible” for
the inspector general (IG) of the Justice Department to “pursue that
aspect of the case,” the IG, Michael Horowitz, testified.

He added that the sought-after White House interview and communications constituted “a lead we wanted to follow.”
But it was a 'complete investigation that cleared the AG', etc. ad Bullshit.

Also from the IG,It's been a key subject of dispute throughout the "Fast and Furious"
saga but one shrouded in mystery: whether wiretap applications reviewed
and approved by senior Justice Department officials should have tipped
them off about the dangerous tactics being used in the operation....Now Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department's inspector general, is
broadly siding with Issa, saying in testimony before the Oversight panel
today that the wiretap applications should have raised red flags to
senior officials who approved them.Asked by several Republican lawmakers at the hearing whether reading
the wiretap applications would have indicated that guns were being
"walked," the tactic employed in Fast and Furious, Horowitz said "yes."He then added a more nuanced version included in the report, that
someone "who was focused on the question of investigative tactics,
particularly one who was already sensitive to the issue of 'gun
walking,'" would have "questions about ATF's conduct of the
investigations."
You'll notice, at the end of this, that Rep. Cummings is playing "Bush started it!" As if that would somehow excuse the guilty in this from responsibility for their actions and inactions.

From Grassley's statement on the report:“At first glance, the Inspector General’s report reaffirms virtually
everything that Congressman Issa and I have already reported. Operation
Fast and Furious was the height of irresponsibility on the part of a
number of people from the ATF Phoenix field office all the way up to the
Justice Department headquarters. And, we still don’t know the full
extent of any White House involvement because they refused to be
transparent and provide documents requested by the Inspector General.

“It’s clear that both the ATF and the Justice Department failed to
provide meaningful oversight of Operation Fast and Furious. They
ignored warnings from employees, and frankly, failed to do their jobs.
It took the death of our own Border Patrol Agent, action by a courageous
whistleblower, and intense scrutiny from Congress before they even took
note of what was happening under their own eyes. Even then, they
wouldn’t come clean with how bad it really was until after they had sent
a false letter and retracted it eight months later.

“It’s particularly discouraging that this all could have been stopped
early on if people had just read the wiretap applications. The
Inspector General noted that anybody reading those documents should have
seen the red flags. The law requires that certain senior officials
authorize those applications, and the Inspector General found that they
did so without reading them(That's assuming they DIDN'T read them...). I’m glad that the OIG is joining me and
Chairman Issa in urging the Justice Department to move to unseal the
wiretap applications so that the American people can read them and make
up their own minds.

“The President also appears to be abusing his authority to exert
executive privilege. The White House rightly allowed the Inspector
General to make public a small subset of the documents withheld from
Congress under his claim of Executive Privilege, but it continues to
shut out Congress’ access to the rest of the documents. It proves that
this subset of documents could have been released earlier, and the
President was merely thumbing his nose at Congress by claiming Executive
Privilege on the eve of the contempt vote against Attorney General
Holder for withholding the documents.

“It’s time to hold people accountable. Attorney General Holder is out of excuses for action.

Found thanks to A Girl and Her Gun, she pointed to Active Response Training, and this page has a bunch of free medical reference books you can download, including Tactical Combat Casualty Care, Combat Lifesaver and others.

A response from A Girl to- well, either a pacifist moron or a absolute, total fool. Two bits:Here is what I want you to understand, he does not think all people are
equal and deserve to live a peaceful life. He believes that bad guys
have the right to kill and good guys have the right to die. He believes
your life and mine are less valuable. He believes that in allowing
yourself to be killed the bad guy now has the opportunity to due
process(found in a separate comment on same post). In the end his entire
argument is that no one has the right to be murdered, but if there is a
choice between good and evil, evil should get his day in court.
...If you get nothing else from this blog, please get this…YOU HAVE VALUE!
Your life has value. All by itself your life has value. You have the
right not to be mugged, raped, beaten or murdered, anywhere at anytime,
by anyone and you most certainly have the right to do your best to stop
someone who is trying to do any of those things to you. There isn’t a
single moral, religious or statistical argument that carries more weight
than YOU are valuable. YOU have worth. Not because you are a mother or a
wife. Not because you volunteer at the local shelter. Not for any
reason other than your life is a gift and as such no one has the right
to forcibly take it from you and if they try then you have every right
to say, No, not today. Not EVER!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

and the other day I somehow managed to scratch an eyeball slightly(yes, I know, even before went to the doc I shouldn't have been out in the wind and crap), so I've been looking around.

Kevin had a post that directed me to MaxedOutMama, whose post started with thisI am so sick of identity politics. This can go no further. We are either going to commit cultural suicide, or we will break the back of the snake of "group rights". There are none. The Constitution grants rights to individuals only. If we ever abandon that principle, then we are squarely in the world of the Muslim, Nazi, Communist and Italian fascists.

Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it.

It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. If you are not willing to defend other people's rights, then US society is going to become an increasingly violent competition between groups for control. The choices before us are pretty clear. Do we want fighting in the streets, or do we want to support each individual's rights?
and has this further down:It's time for Americans to grapple with the fact that our academic system is riddled with people who espouse values that are utterly antithetical to the American Constitution and the founding principles of our society. You cannot defend academic freedom for Ward Churchill (who has a long track record of espousing murder and violence as political weapons) on principle and then turn around and promulgate disposition theory in education schools, require social work students to lobby legislatures for particular political programs, or dismiss instructors who argue with Palestinian activists.You cannot logically institute a policy of non-discrimination against same-sex couples and then promulgate a policy forbidding RAs to hold bible studies in their own dorms. A university system that prevents the Danish Mohammed cartoons from being shown in the context of a discussion about them is fascist to its ugly, petty core.
You really ought to read it all.

I admit to a lot of gloomy thoughts lately. I'm listening to/reading people I generally think smart who actually believe that not reelecting Obama means we hate someone/want someone to die/don't care about the world/are racist/I think are actually scared of Romney*. We've got a President who'd rather pander to terrorists and muslim fanatics than defend that Constitution he swore an oath to uphold and defend. I've actually had someone tell me that 'We're not out of money, there are a lot of rich people who have a lot we don't have access to yet!'(which scares the bloody hell out of me, because SHE ACTUALLY MEANT IT). As Sarah Hoyt has pointed out, poor people in the US live at a level that most nobles and princes of not that long ago could not imagine, yet we're constantly told that we 'owe' it to those poor to take care of EVERYFUCKINGTHING for them; otherwise "You don't CARE if people suffer/die/whatever!", etc(after 'It's for the CHILDRENNNN!' one of the more common insults lately). And so forth.

And, of course, we have the savages working the Terrorist Veto worldwide. And the hoplophobes and gun bigots using lies to try to disarm anyone not with a 'State Minion' id. Add to that son being in Somewhereinthehell Afghanistan while our President is 'negotiating' with the enemy...

All this does not for a peaceful mind make.

Makes it hard to enjoy things.

*Yes, I know what Romney is; no, I don't much trust him; yes, I do think he'd be less dangerous to the country than another four years of Obama.

Piss on you and your pedophile prophet, you miserable little tyrant wannabe. We don't have to have your approval for our speech. ANY of it."“My position is that White House has to say strong in its condemnation
[of the filmmakers] and take this person to court. If he is innocent, we
will accept that… The government has strong case against this person.”
Fuck you. Get this through your head: THERE IS NOTHING TO TAKE HIM TO COURT ABOUT. Not in OUR country.

Read the whole damn thing. It all boils down to "Sooner or later you will have to abide by the Koran and Sharia, or else. And the 'or else' will be your fault!"

Day by Day has a good response to your 'Censor yourselves!' crap. And, borrowed from Sondrak,

or do they actually think this crap helps?
You can't see it on the blog, but the whole 'posting' page has changed. PITA.

B: Our President can't be bothered with disrupting his campaign schedule(nice excuse, huh?) to meet with Israeli officials, but he'll make time for the Egyptian President; probably to discuss how to turn the Blink Sheikh loose as quietly as possible.

C: If this woman was willing to turn loose and beat the crap out of this cleric, things are likely to get real interesting in Iran.

D: On Libya and various lies:
The officials provided the information to the Washington Guardian, saying they
feared the Obama administration’s scant description of the episode left
a misimpression that the two ex-Navy SEALs might have been responsible
for the ambassador’s personal safety or become separated from him.

“Woods and Doherty weren’t part of the detail, nor were they
personally responsible for the ambassador’s security, but they stepped
into the breach when the attacks occurred and their actions saved others
lives — and they shouldn’t be lumped in with the security
detail,” one senior official said, speaking only on condition of
anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the State
Department.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

so I sent the following to Simon Property Group:I am sending my question as a general inquiry because when I send to Penn Square specifically, or name it in this form I get the following reject:DELIVERY FAILURE: User blanddec (blanddec@simon.com) not listed in Domino Directory

My question: I went to Penn Square for the first time in a while, and noticed that you have posted 'no firearms' signs on the doors.

Those who have carry permits have passed a background investigation and class; I am curious as to why you have decided that people with concealed carry permits are not welcome in your mall, or are not trusted to carry their sidearm there.

That header added for the reason noted: send to the specific contact for Penn Square Mall, or if- in the corporate form- I choose 'mall specific question', I get a reject.

Not that it matters so far, because nobody has answered the question; we'll see if they do this time. Last time and this I get a automated "We received it, someone will answer" message, so I know it's getting there.

Case in point, Chapter One of the report identifies key individuals who declined to be interviewed, significantly including “Criminal Chief [Patrick J.] Cunningham [who] declined through counsel our request for a follow-up interview…We also requested an interview with Kevin O’Reilly, a member of the White House’s National Security Staff[who] declined our request through his personal counsel.”

Simlarly of significance, and hardly surprising to those following this story, the report notes “The White House did not produce to us any internal White House communications, noting that “’the White House is beyond the purview of the Inspector General’s Office, which has jurisdiction over Department of Justice programs and personnel.’”
So they didn't talk to a bunch of people, did NOT get needed files, and yet they say Holder didn't know anything? Bullshit. For that matter, I didn't know people could tell the IG "I don't want to talk to you" and get away with it; are these clowns setting a precedent they may regret? More problems:Also raising concerns, and again unsurprising to long-time observers, is a statement released this afternoon by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, who observed “We’ve already noticed that the report contains a factual error that lets Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer off the hook. The report accepts Breuer’s version of events, claiming that he hadn’t ‘proposed edits, commented on the drafts or otherwise indicated he had read them.’ In fact, emails show that he received drafts of the February 4 letter and commented on them before it was sent, which he later denied to Congress.”

So the report is really incomplete, has lots of holes in it, but expect the media to keep saying "This clears Holder!"

The Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was in fact “a terrorist attack” and the U.S. government has indications that members of al Qaeda were directly involved, a top Obama administration official said Wednesday morning.So, which do you think: did they decide it wasn't worth claiming 'It was all because of that video!' anymore, or did they realize just how effing stupid they were looking?

'Well, that answers that.'
'That' being the use of the scraper. In about an hour I was able to remove almost all traces of the original finish from the sides, and then did a bit on the front. Except for some separation around the bottom curve, the finish on the front is in a lot better shape than the sides & back; and, except for those areas, this finish will not come off the way the rest did. So, a lot of sanding.

The scraper did save me a huge amount of time on the back & sides, so very happy I tried it. I started sanding on the front, will see if can get most of the finish off. It'll be about the first before the lutier can help me remove the bridge, so limited on how much I can do on the front. Figure do the 220 sanding on the back & sides, get as much of the front as I can, and wait for the finer sanding until the bridge is out of the way. I'll add some pictures later, guitar and scraper.

Updated: here's the scraper

As mentioned before, this is a piece of handsaw blade. I don't think I've covered making this before, so:
First, figure the size & shape, and cut it. I used a dremel with a cutoff wheel: draw the outline, cut just outside that line. Don't have to cut all the way, depending on how you lay it out: if you score it deeply enough, you can then clamp it in a vise and flex the blade to break the piece off; same for smaller pieces to get the shape. For a curved face, you'll have to do some grinding: I use my belt sander to both smooth & true the flat sides, and shape the curve.

Remember that you need the edges to be as square as possible, with sharp corners.

With a new piece, after the profile is done I lightly sand the flats to get rid of any burrs, then roll on the hook. From here the pics are for putting a new hook on one you've been using:
First, use a fine file to cut away what's left of the hook.

Then use the file to cut the side down. Again, keep it at as true a right-angle as possible to the scraper so you get those nice square corners.

With that done, I give the file a wipe over the flats again to get rid of any burrs. Now comes making the hook.

Clamp the piece in a vise, and you'll need a hard, smooth piece of steel; in this case I'm using a long hex key

You can buy a burnishing tool for this, it's a oval cross-section piece of hardened steel with a handle(yes, I need to make one) just for the purpose. As long as it's smooth and hard(you're working on a piece of medium-to-high-carbon steel, remember) it will work. Hold the tool against the scraper starting at one corner(in this case) at about a 35-45 degree angle. Now you have to both push or draw it along the corner while pushing the tool down, actually sliding it both horizontally and vertically. What you're doing is forming that corner into a hook that extends out a bit; light pressure can make a barely-there hook for very fine scraping, heavy pressure makes a bigger, more aggressive hook. Takes a little messing with, but it's easy to pick up how to do this.

I learned this from a guy I used to know named Eddie, one hell of a carpenter/woodworker/general craftsman who had no problems sharing knowledge. A fine man, died a few years back(yeah, he's missed by a lot of people). He used scrapers a lot, both for removing old finishes that tended to clog sandpaper fast, and for the wood itself: set up the right hook and you can either take a fair amount of wood off with each stroke, or barely touch the surface to smooth it.

Back to the guitar, here's the soundboard; aside from a small place at the top, this along the bottom was the only places the finish was separating.

Just to try, after it sat all night I tried the scraper carefully along the edges, and sure enough was able to pop off more of the old finish. After that did some sanding. By the time my hands were saying "Knock it off, NOW" I'd removed a fair amount of the finish on the soundboard and done more 220 sanding on the sides and back

Sides and back are starting to look nice. Be a while yet before I can get the gentleman to help remove the bridge, so no rush on this.

By the way, if you're looking for instrument parts/materials/finish stuff, here's the site he gave me: Stewart MacDonald.

You know, I think we're getting to the point where "Islamophobia" (instead of, er... "misislamy"? ...which is what you probably meant) is getting to be an appropriate term to use. I do get a little edgy around people when I'm not sure if their response to "Hey, Ahmet my friend, tell me, did you hear the one about 'Why did the Prophet cross the road?'" will be to throw Molotov cocktails through my windows and drag my beheaded corpse through the street.

Actually, "Islamophobia" may not be an accurate term at all, since "-phobia" describes fear that is irrational or out of proportion, when it has been shown over and over that a fear of Muslims losing their collective $#!+ in an orgy of burning, looting, and killing in response to "insults" that might not even be sufficient do draw more than a "Yeah? So's your mom!" in response on any civilized elementary school playground is grounded in, not just historic example, but a clear-headed grasp of current events.This is in response to another "It's our fault, we need to be more understanding!" editorial.

"Why won’t President Obama — unlike Paul Ryan — release a long-term budget plan? Simple. If he did, it would show the only way to realistically pay for the Democratic spending agenda is to eventually raise taxes on pretty much everybody.

See, if you are not going to cut future spending increases and dramatically reform entitlements, raising taxes on just the rich isn’t enough to cover the budget gap. The Buffett Rule is a sham. The Tax Policy Center clearly showed that in a recent tax simulation it conducted:

What? Mother Jones'inadvertently' lost a couple of minutes of Romney audio?

President Obama has accused Mitt Romney of being a “reverse Robin Hood” – taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Ironically, that’s exactly what Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is doing, with the blessing of the Obama White House. Mr. Bernanke has again opened the central bank spigots, promising another round of quantitative easing, or bond and asset purchases, aimed at keeping interest rates low for the foreseeable future.

The upshot? Rising gasoline prices which will hurt low-income Americans, reduced income for retirees, and soaring stock prices. While seniors worried how they could cope with diminished incomes, the 40 wealthiest people in the world saw their net worth jump by $29 billion this past week.

Why don't so many of us trust the media? Because so many of them are so full of crap, and in collusion with Obama & Co.Today’s revelation by Matt Boyle that the Justice Department is coordinating attacks on private citizens (including me) and coordinating with Media Matters on a wider scale than I first reported some months ago here at PJ Media provokes the question — why?

I raise this German history not to compare the events of that era to events today in America, but rather to note peculiar characteristics common to political thuggery, regardless of the degree or nationality of the thuggery.

I shall now, among other things, get some chili started for dinner. And rake up what Security Staff(Jr.) has found and carried to the center of the yard to chew on. Or admire the arrangement of. Whatever, it's a mess.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

A very good post. Couple of bits:Some of this is budget related and if there's one idea I'd like to get across to city and county administrators and police chiefs across the country it's this. Spend your money wisely and effectively. Forget the SWAT teams and armored cars. Forget the UAVs and whiz bang. Concentrate on the basics, the things that make up your core competency. Hiring, Training and Retention. Invest your money in improving just those three simple areas and watch the effectiveness and competency of your agency grow all out of proportion to your costs.

AndI saw just this morning a video out of Maryland where a cop rushed a kid and bashed him over the head with his handgun. A handgun with one of his Hysterically Incompetent digits wrapped around the trigger which subsequently discharged. Then he lied about it because he's still in Hysterical Incompetent mode even after the encounter is over. Instead of an arrest it's national news, another black eye for my brothers and sisters in uniform and a 10 million dollar lawsuit. Nice.

We don't get the law enforcement we deserve, we get the law enforcement we allow. Be active in your community politically. Get to know your leaders and your cops. Be involved and be informed.And please remind your police administration that the vilest word in the law enforcement lexicon is Incompetent.

Well, this is just effing wonderful:Syria tested firing systems for poison gas shells at the country's largest chemical weapons research center at Safira, east of Aleppo, last month, German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Monday, citing statements from various witnesses.

According to the report, Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers were flown in by helicopter to witness the testing....It's also a well-known fact that Iran has been an active participant in Syria's WMD activities. In July 2007 "dozens" of Iranian engineers were killed (along with 15 Syrian military personnel) in an explosion at a research complex in the Aleppo region. According to Jane's Defence Weekly, the incident occurred when rocket fuel caught fire and Iranian and Syrian technicians attempted to load mustard gas onto a SCUD C missile. The blast also released a cloud of mustard, Sarin and VX nerve gas across the compound.Put bluntly: I don't believe Obama would order military action against Syria- REAL military action- unless he thought there was some way to claim credit so as to help his reelection chances. He'd be more likely to try to under-the-table nudge the Israelis to do it(or just wait for them to do it when they decide they cannot wait any longer) and then both talk about the horrible Israelis and the harm they did, and offer aid to the 'victims' of the nasty Jews.

After posting Post I yesterday, I spent a little time starting to sand. Even with the damage, that finish is tough; after around 45 minutes I'd taken a lot of surface off but was nowhere near the wood.

Idea occurred, to try today: scraper. I wondered if one with a nice, sharp hook would be able to shave the old finish off more efficiently and still not bite into the wood. So after got home this evening(busy and fairly productive day) and all the livestock was fed, I took one, rolled a hook onto one long and one short side and gave it a try. It did indeed shave some finish off, but it was still going to take a while. Then took it over a spot where I'd picked off a piece of the separated, bubbled finish yesterday*, and a couple of big flakes popped off.

That was surprising, so stopped and studied things a moment, and discovered something: I could ease the hook up to the finish, carefully pushing down just enough to let the hook grab the edge of the finish, and pull. Pop, and another piece or pieces of finish would come off. Without leaving a mark on the wood that I could see.

Put it this way: instead of the several hours of sanding I'd (hoped)figured it would take to clean the back, in about twenty minutes I had the back clean, not a flake of finish left. Spent a couple of minutes with a sanding block and 220-grit paper, just to check the surface, and it looks good. If this works as well on the other surfaces, it's going to save a LOT of time.

I have no idea if it would work this way/well on a good finish that was just scratched or otherwise needing repair(it would definitely work to shave the finish down some); it may simply be that the way this finish was coming loose in places allowed the scraper to take it off this way. Either way, it works.

*using one of those 'You have been pre-approved!' fake credit cards to pop it off

a day early; so-so photography notice:First impressions:Fits just like it should. I usually wear a 34 waist; as I like the IWB holster I ordered a 36, and the holstered pistol fits comfortably. And the length is exactly right for me.All the seams are properly finished, and I think the pleats will stay as they should.The right cargo pocket has three sub-pockets inside, each will hold a pistol magazine; the left has two sub-pockets, that each hold a AR15-22 magazine.Both cargo pockets can be taken off.It needs to be washed, of course, which should get rid of a few creases from being folded into a shipping envelope.

I think I'm going to like it.

By the way, the bonnet is the one I've worn for many years at Ren-fairs, Medieval Faire, Scottish gatherings and other times; personal badge and all.

The back and soundboard aren't nearly as badexcept for a couple of strips along the bottom edge, but they'll still have to be stripped completely before new finish can be applied. That's going to take a while, and a lot of sanding, to cut off the old finish without taking more than the tiniest bit of the surface of the wood. The lutier suggested starting with 220 grit to get the old stuff off, then up to 600 for the final. After that will come cleaning, masking and spraying.

Don't hold your breath waiting for updates, I'm going to take my time on this.

People are taking out high-interest loans for more than bills, but they'll actually borrow money to go to the fair. Statewide Finance has seen about a 20 percent increase in business since the fairgrounds opened.

indicates either a nonexistent spine(s), a terminal(for other people) case of idiocy, or- well, I can't really see any other choices.The U.S. State Department is actively considering negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as “the Blind Sheikh,” for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze.

The Department of Justice, however, told TheBlaze that Rahman is serving a life sentence and is not considered for possible “release.” Previous calls to the State Department were referred to the Department of Justice and so far, the State Department has neither confirmed nor denied the report.Isn't that just friggin' wonderful? Can you say "We'll turn the terrorist loose if you promise to be nicer to us in the future"?Cue Churchills' comment about appeasers.A veteran intelligence analyst familiar with TheBlaze’s sourcing on this story said he met with an official on the Egypt desk at the State Department who told him the transfer of the Blind Sheikh to Egypt is something that is being “actively considered” by the administration as a solution to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. His source asked not to be identified, fearing he would be persecuted by the U.S. government.'Persecuted'... that's a nice word for it.

They do take note of the denial:McCarthy also said the way the Department of Justice worded its denial may prove to be significant. The DOJ said Rahman’s “release” was not being considered, however, the question was whether or not his “transfer” to Egypt was being discussed.Would you believe anything these bastards said?

I mentioned a while back the problem with my guitar. Since then, I've checked books and websites; buttloads of information on repainting/refinishing electric guitars, but not squat on acoustics could I find.

Couple of days ago asked a couple of the folks with Beyond the Nine if they knew anybody; and lo! they pointed me to this place, Sooner Acoustic Music. So went by, they looked it over, and said(boiled down) "This will have to all be sanded off and recoated; I can do it, but you can too." And when I said was willing, he spent about twenty minutes on hows and whats(including where to get the finish he recommended), ending with "Don't be afraid to call me if you have any questions."

So I'll be doing it, now that I actually have the information needed and advice(if needed). Assuming I don't lose track, I'll take pictures when I start, and during the process.

for our rights:"The Obama administration’s Department of Justice official Edward Perez, who is the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, refuses to say that his department won’t attempt to criminalize blasphemy in the future."Watch the video: The question asked is "Will you tell us here today, simply, that this administrations’ Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?" Simple question; and Perez tries four times to talk AROUND an answer.

Yeah, we can trust this administration to protect our rights(until enough muslims demand we lose them)...

Sunday, September 16, 2012

My initial tweet about Bacile, the person said to be responsible for the film mocking the prophet Mohammed, was not because I am against the First Amendment. My tweets reflected my exasperation that as a religion professor, it is difficult to teach the facts when movies such as Bacile's Innocence of Muslims are taken as both truth and propaganda, and used against innocent Americans.

Let me just say this: if a YouTube video produced by a convicted felon renders it difficult for you to teach kids smart enough to get into Penn about religion, then you might want to consider another profession that does not require communication skills....I had to read that three times to make sure I hadn't gone nuts. An American college professor — one who just paragraphs earlier announced that college professors are self-evidently supporters of the First Amendment — just said that speech should be punished by the government if the United States military thinks it should be. Is this real life?Unfortunately, it is.Read it all

A bit of history that, unfortunately, is generally forgotten(considering schools today, probably not taught):How many know that perhaps 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved in Islamic North Africa between 1530 and 1780? We dimly recall that Miguel de Cervantes was briefly in the galleys. But what of the people of the town of Baltimore in Ireland, all carried off by “corsair” raiders in a single night?...Let us not call this view reductionist. Jefferson would perhaps have been just as eager to send a squadron to put down any Christian piracy that was restraining commerce. But one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping, enslaving both crews and passengers, America’s two foremost envoys were informed that “it was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” (It is worth noting that the United States played no part in the Crusades, or in the Catholic reconquista of Andalusia.)

Roger Simon:Indeed, the beginnings of Islam are the very stuff of great theatre and cinema, reprehensible as the actions of the protagonist may be. In fact, it may be great because of those actions. After all, Richard III is not a classic for nothing.

So I am very tempted by the subject of Mohammed.

Arrest me, Hillary Clinton, before I start. Call Eric Holder!

And while you are at it, tell him to round up Salman Rushdie. His novel about Mohammed is obviously blasphemous. He was lucky to escape that fatwa. We should have one of our own.Speaking of which,

Some more evidence that the embassies were leaking like Chris Matthews' brain:A squad of U.S. troops despatched by helicopter across the Libyan desert to rescue besieged diplomats from Benghazi on Wednesday ran into a fierce ambush that left a further two Americans dead, Libyan officials told Reuters. Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, commander of a special Libyan operations unit, said his men and an eight-man U.S. force came under attack after American survivors had left the blazing consulate and moved to an ostensibly secret location in an isolated villa. The villa came under an intense and highly accurate mortar barrage.

“I really believe that this attack was planned,” he said. “The accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any regular revolutionaries.”

Connected: I'd heard bits & pieces about this, just ran across this post today:The Lebanese news organization Tayyar.org is reporting that the murdered American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was raped prior to his killing September 11, 2012.

The Lebanese news report cited the Agence France-Presse (AFP) broke the story when given the information by an unnamed senior member of the Libyan Interior Ministry.

Tayyar.com also reported via Google translation from the original Arabic, Ambassador Stevens:

"...was killed and representation of his body in a manner similar to what happened with Gaddafi, such as murder."

Wonder if we'll every know the truth of this, yes or no?

Connected: from Front Page Mag:In the Wikileaks cables, Stevens cheerfully described fighters who saw “resistance against coalition forces in Iraq” as “an important act of ‘jihad’” and local businessmen who took pride in the number of suicide bombers who had come out of the area. For years he had walked safely in their company without understanding that he was just as much of a target as a Marine in Baghdad, but without the training, the weapons or the survival skills.

The only reason Christopher Stevens had lasted this long is that the jihadist fighters had known a useful man when they met him. And Stevens proved to be very useful, but his usefulness ended with Gaddafi’s death. Once the US successfully overthrew Gaddafi and began focusing on stabilizing Libya, Stevens ceased to be a useful idiot and became a useless nuisance. Attacks soon followed on the Benghazi consulate and on other consulates as well, but the Marines were not brought in and Stevens continued relying on local goodwill to secure his offices. It was only a matter of time until the attackers got through.

Yes, I'm gloomy this morning: it's overcast and damp outside, our idiot Fed director has made sure my savings will continue to lose value, a bunch of dirtbags in Sodom on the Potomac have openly shown they don't give a rats ass about the Bill of Rights, and the other consequences of electing this socialist jerkare helping blow up a large area of the world. If I didn't need to go somewhere, I'd have a drink.

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at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.